Wednesday Q&A with U of L coach Bobby Petrino

Louisville coach Bobby Petrino joined the ACC coaches teleconference for about 10 minutes on Wednesday to discuss his team's preparation ahead of Saturday's game against North Carolina State.

Here's the full Q&A from his chat:

Opening statement: We're looking forward to being back home. We've been on the road four out of the last five weeks. It will be great to be back home, play in front of our homecoming crowd. I think our players are excited about the game. Coming off a tough loss. It's important we have a great week of practice.

On DeVante Parker: He is close. He had a very good weekend, then he practiced yesterday. I'm encouraged. But I was encouraged last Tuesday, too. We just have to really see how he reacts to the practice and the work that he has. But he did look good in practice yesterday.

On the difference he'd make: That's hard for me to say. But he is a dynamic player with a great ability, his ability to get open, catch the ball, run after the catch, it's something we've missed.

On Will Gardner starting at QB: Well, he was our starting quarterback to start the season, then lost his job with an injury. We felt like Reggie came in, did a nice job for us. We won two games with him as a starter. Will came in the other night, helped our team, got us in an opportunity to win the game.

Going back and evaluating everything on Sunday, we feel like going into the game that Will should be the starter.

On Louisville's defense: Yes. They've performed at a very high level. Going into the season, we were very concerned about replacing two great safeties and a number of other players that were first‑round draft picks. But they've done a really nice job. They're playing fast. They're playing physical. They communicate real well. You know they're playing at a very high level.

On NC State: In the Florida State game, they were very explosive on offense. Did a great job of different formations, different personnel groups. They give you a lot of different looks, can run the ball. They got a quarterback that can run it. Defensively they do a really nice job of rushing the passer, playing tight coverage in the secondary.

We feel like we're going to have to play well, do a better job offensively to get a win.

On playing in the ACC: It's been exciting for us to be able to bring the different teams and the quality of teams that we get to bring into Papa John's Stadium right now to go to new places, like the trip to Clemson and Virginia. It's great for our fans, our players. It's been a great experience.

Obviously we're learning a lot about the personnel. Have to spend extra time getting to know the players on the other teams because we haven't been with them for a number of years. I think it's a great thing for our program.

On positives after the Clemson loss: Yeah, that's what we try to do, is build on the positives. Our guys played with great effort. We knew going in we needed to make it a fourth quarter game where we had a chance to win in the fourth quarter. We got in that position. Defensively we played extremely well throughout the game. Came up with a big stop late. Offensively had a chance to go score and just came up short.

We're trying to build on the fact that we played with great effort and that we were focused. We just have to get more efficient offensively.

On the fluctuation of quarterback play: Yeah, I think both of them are very inexperienced. It's a new experience for them. We felt like we were starting to get into a little bit of a groove, and then you have an injury, so you have to change.

But I was very impressed with the mentality and the maturity that Reggie showed when he was in there playing. He's a great competitor. I think we can really build on what both of them have done. We just need to get some consistency and some better execution, and not just at the quarterback position. We need the guys around him to play better.